Comments on: Use Cases, Business Rules and Decisions http://smartenoughsystems.com/wp/2007/10/31/use-cases-business-rules-and-decisions/ Delivering competitive advantage with smarter systems through automating decisions Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:50:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: David Wright http://smartenoughsystems.com/wp/2007/10/31/use-cases-business-rules-and-decisions/#comment-145 David Wright Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:19:20 +0000 http://smartenoughsystems.com/wp/2007/10/31/use-cases-business-rules-and-decisions/#comment-145 Me again. Do you know Tom Debevoise? he is blogging on this topic today as well, from a BPM perspective. http://www.tomdebevoise.com/blog/ Me again.

Do you know Tom Debevoise? he is blogging on this topic today as well, from a BPM perspective.

http://www.tomdebevoise.com/blog/

]]> By: David Wright http://smartenoughsystems.com/wp/2007/10/31/use-cases-business-rules-and-decisions/#comment-144 David Wright Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:15:43 +0000 http://smartenoughsystems.com/wp/2007/10/31/use-cases-business-rules-and-decisions/#comment-144 When I think of the relation of rules and use cases, what I find is that use cases have internal decision points, that when a scenario is run the decision must be made if the normal path or an alternative path should be taken. I have found that real business rules usually form the basis for this path decision. Overall, relating the two is about how you name things and cross-reference them. Use Case's will have recognizable phrase names, but naming rules is not so straightforward. Some people don't like to name them, but I have used Barbara van Halle's naming method, and used those names to xref from their use in a Use Case to where the rule is separately captured/managed. Now, when you have hundreds/thousands of rules (a volume level I have not worked with yet), I don't know if names like "Minimum Age Constraint" will work. I also know you will start to group rules into rule sets (perhaps better to be called Decision Sets?) which I think you would have to name. What has been your experience in managing large numbers of rules? When I think of the relation of rules and use cases, what I find is that use cases have internal decision points, that when a scenario is run the decision must be made if the normal path or an alternative path should be taken. I have found that real business rules usually form the basis for this path decision.

Overall, relating the two is about how you name things and cross-reference them. Use Case’s will have recognizable phrase names, but naming rules is not so straightforward. Some people don’t like to name them, but I have used Barbara van Halle’s naming method, and used those names to xref from their use in a Use Case to where the rule is separately captured/managed.

Now, when you have hundreds/thousands of rules (a volume level I have not worked with yet), I don’t know if names like “Minimum Age Constraint” will work. I also know you will start to group rules into rule sets (perhaps better to be called Decision Sets?) which I think you would have to name.

What has been your experience in managing large numbers of rules?

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